9 Thanksgiving Traffic Trouble Spots

This north-south highway takes travelers between New England and Washington D.C. and points south. Everything about this road will be busy: the service areas, the highway itself and the toll plazas, especially for those using cash getting off the Turnpike onto the Parkway in Woodbridge.

Holiday trouble spots:

• Near Newark Airport exits 13a and 14.
  
  
• Southbound at the merge of the inner and outer roadways near interchange 8A.
  
  
• South of exit 4 to the Delaware Memorial Bridge . Northbound between exits 6 and 8A in the construction zone.

Road trip trivia question: How many service areas are on the Turnpike? (Answer: 12)

The main road to the Shore in the summer gets its share of holiday traffic. If you haven't been on the Parkway since last holiday season there's good news and bad news. The widening project between Toms River and Exit 63 in Manahawkin is complete. The bad news: the second phase has begun down to Exit 30 in Atlantic County.

Holiday trouble spots:

• Southbound from exit 153(Clifton) to Route 78.
  
  
•  Exit 131 to the Driscoll Bridge.

Road Trip Trivia: What is significant to truckers about Exit 105? (Answer: trucks cannot travel any further north than this exit).

The road that takes travelers from sea to shining sea begins in New Jersey.

Holiday Trouble Spots

• Both ways at the 287 construction zone
  
  
• Near the Delaware Water Gap.

 Road Trip Triva: I-80 opened to traffic in what year?
(Answer: 1953)

Route 1 was pressed into service as a north-south alternative to the New Jersey Turnpike when the state canceled construction of Interstate 95 from Mercer County (between exits 4 and 6) northward into Somerset County. The road has been widened in the area of the Holiday Trouble Spot yet still has parking lots where drivers can pull into high speed traffic.

Holiday Trouble Spot:

• The corridor between Plainsboro and 295/95 - lots of shopping areas
  

Road Trip Trivia: How many colleges does Route 1 pass in New Jersey?

(Answer: 2. The James Forrestal Campus of Princeton University and Rutgers University college farm)

The George Washington Bridge just turned 80 in October having opened to traffic in 1931 with a single level of traffic. The lower deck was opened in 1962.

Holiday Trouble Spot:

• Routes 80/95 express lanes always heavier.

Road Trip Trivia: True or false: Foot traffic once had to pay a toll use the bridge's sidewalk.

(Answer: True. Pedestrians were charged 10 cents in the first few years of the bridge being open)

The Outerbridge Bridge, sometimes referred to a Crossing, is not named  because it is the most remote bridge in New York City and the southernmost crossing in New York State. The span is named for Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge (sometimes pronounced "ooterbridge") the first chairman of the then-Port of New York Authority and a resident of Staten Island.

Holiday Trouble Spot:

•  Leaving New Jersey on Routes 287 and 440 .

Road Trip Trivia: Which bridge is older...the Outerbridge or the GW? (Answer: The Outerbridge was opened in 1928; the GW in 1931).

Once the busiest airport in the world, Newark Airport was closed to commercial aviation during World War 2 so that captured enemy aircraft could be brought there. The Port Authority took over airport operations in 1948 when civilian traffic returned.

•  Routes 1/9, 22,78 and the Turnpike.
  
  
• Coordinate pick up and drop offs --No Standing Zones will be enforced.

 Road Trip Trivia: Name the airline that flew extremely inexpensively priced flights out of Newark in the early 1980's

(Answer: People's Express)

This is one of the earliest roadways built as part of the Interstate Highway System that has more changes to come. The exit with Interstate 76 (that road's official designation often referred to as the 42 Freeway) will be rebuilt within the next few years to get rid of the traffic "weave" required to go from 295 south onto 76 south.

Plus, the roadway will one day officially end at Interstate 195 in Hamilton as part of construction on the Pennsylvania Turnpike which will create a direct exit from what is now I-95 to the PA Turnpike in Bucks County, PA.  (got that?).  Basically, I-95 in Pennsylvania will run north of Philadelphia and then continue east on the NJ/PA Turnpike Extension to the the NJ Turnpike at exit 6. The rest of the roadway in PA will be designated I-195 and continue into NJ on what is now I-95 .

Holiday Trouble Spot:

• between Black Horse Pike and Belmawr

Road Trip Trivia: How many states does I-295 currently run through?

(Answer: Two. New Jersey & Delaware)

Interstate 195 is a seemingly basic east-west highway connecting Monmouth County to Trenton. However, it was part of plans since scrapped that would have involved the construction of an expressway from Toms River and another from Camden to Belmar. Then, the  Driscoll Expressway would start at Parway exit 80  in Toms River and end 3 miles north of exit 8A of the Turnpike in South Brunswick.

Holiday Trouble Spot:

• Construction area over the New Jersey Turnpike

Road Trip Trivia: What Congressman  is I-195 named after?

(Answer: James J. Howard, who was responsible for the 55 MPH speed limit in the 1970's as well as many transportation projects.)